Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.development (
More info?)
"Balaam" <balaam@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1116140488.095380.48620@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> I'm curious what point 3 "age the world" entails here. It sounds like a
> pretty big step!
>
Well, it is, but it's just as big as trying to create an interesting
random world right off the bat
.
> Do you have an intial couple and the generate world population and city
> growth from them? I guess you could work out possibly migration
> patterns for each of the offspring once a a particular area becomes
> uncomfotably crowded. (above some given a threshold for a given
> landtype)
>
Well, I have a large number of occupations and what a town needs to have
before it can have people doing that job. Also a bunch of reproduction
rates and various other parameters, seasons affect things like how efficient
people are at their jobs (depending on job etc). That's also how geography
affects things. If there is desert around, yet a river, then there can be
fishermen (people need to eat). If there was a bit of fertile farmland, but
the crops are out of season (say it is winter) then the people might build a
road to a nearby river. Or one of many other possibilities.
> Do you have cities that prosper and ones that are abandoned?
> I guess this would be useful for dungeons of ruins.
>
It's not *that* complicated. People only die if they starve to death, and
even then it's more like the population just ``decreases''. Ruins are
simulated by the fact that sometimes the people from a faltering village
(say one high in the mountains) will migrate to a bigger city in a better
geographical location. The Rex and Regina will never leave their village
however, unless it is taken over by some other species. They also don't
need to eat and will continue to produce new people. If there is a village
with only those two special people in it at the end of generation then it
becomes a ghost-twon (well, one of many different types of ghost-towns
depending on geopgraphy) and the two people are replaced by one or more
archetypes (say a crazy old hermit) to give it some flavour.
> I think aging the world would be more complicated with many different
> races as surely they are going to influence one another and it's going
> to be a lot more interesting if some races are older and more
> widespread - why doesn't the younger race (such as humans) just die
> off?
>
I try to avoid that by not having old and new races, just different races.
There is a kind of artificial evolution: as a settlement increases in size
it gains a status increase: from hamlet->village->town->city->metropolis.
With each increase the people who are there at that time and any descendents
they have will be a little bit different depending on which occupations are
most prevalent among the populace. Say, for example, that there is a hamlet
going to village and the only jobs people have are fishermen. Then everyone
in the hamlet (now village) is genetically predisposed to be a good
fishermen. In game terms this means that they will gain traits that let
them do their job well; again in this case it is an affinity for sea
critters, a way of detecting where they are, good ability to swin etc.
Looking at the code for it now, if you go all the way from
hamlet->metropolis and gain the fishing trait every time then the people
become mer-people and ``sink'' their city (creating a type of Atlantis).
This is how ``dwarves'' and ``elves'' and other such stereotypical races are
used in my game. But don't get me wrong, they definitely are not older or
younger than eachother.
> Also advancing in technology - I assume as in most rogue likes you
> working with a medival style setting. Do you have a set technology tree
> that your people follow? Is it possible to come across small
> cavemen-like tribes?
>
Well, some of the people will get religious types who will want to write
down various things, giving way to scholars and monks who can then start an
education system. But as far as a tech tree goes, it's not really that
complicated. I leave it mostly at the job system. As an example you have
the serf job who requires a free citizen, at least three farmers and at
least three other working citizens. The serf job increasing the
organisation of the settlement (from the Rex and Regina) and also allows the
people to do a little bit more expansion. Serfs are a direct requirement
for the job of Knight, Ringmaster and Baron.
Yes, the word Serf does not mean those things. But it does in my game
.
> All interesting ideas and good to hear.
>
Thanks. Keep in mind that these things sound hard until you code them and
realise that it just sorta works. You only need a world which will be
interesting to the player and allow them to have fun with the people in it
.
--
Glen
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